This disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing an item of build-to-order equipment, especially, but not limited to, a personal computer (PC) system unit.
In a build-to-order (BTO) manufacturing process an individual PC system unit is built to a customer's hardware and software specification from a range of available options. For instance, the target system unit might include a certain brand of hard drive, a particular type of monitor, a certain brand of processor and a particular version of an operating system. Before the system unit is shipped to the customer, the selected hardware and software components are installed and tested in a series of manufacturing stages.
In a typical manufacturing process, a respective digital identifier, known as a system trackcode, provides a unique definition of the hardware and software configuration of the system unit ordered by the customer. Conventionally, the system trackcode is stored in a file located on a floppy diskette that travels with the system unit during the entire manufacturing process. However, the current trend within PC manufacturing is to eliminate the reliance on removable storage media and, in the future, many systems built by PC manufacturers will not have a floppy drive installed.
Therefore, what is needed is to provide a method of manufacturing a BTO item which does not rely on removable storage media travelling with the system unit to contain the system trackcode and, in particular, a method which allows automatic retrieval of the system trackcode at various stages of manufacture. In the present context manufacture means not simply the assembly of the hardware components but also software installation and unit testing.